Now, everyone knows I love Riot. League of Legends is one of my go-to PC games. I can pick it up, play a few matches, leave scowling and furious, and get my workout in and feel better. Well I don’t always hate myself at the end, but you know; shit happens. I’ve talked about reworks lately, and we’ve talked about Ryze before. But goddamnit, Riot! What happened to the Yorick rework we were promised? So many characters need work, but instead we get something like four Ryze reworks? The new one just went live, which means two in the past couple of years alone. WHY HAS HE HAD FOUR REWORKS. And almost every damn time he’s insanely broken, with tons of damage, CC, he just has it all. Tanks? Whatever fucker, get rekt. Assassins? CC, combo, ded. Other mages? Hope you brought some Magic Def. Because for a long time you just built tank Ryze and slapped people in the junk, and there wasn’t a thing they could do except be better than him.
I’m not saying that Ryze has always been insanely overpowered, but he’s gone through more reworks than anyone, and that says something to me. This current iteration is still pretty similar to all of his old builds, but his ult does something wacky and new. He pops up a portal around himself after channeling for two seconds. At the end, him and his allies in range blink to a new location. He can move around during it, but it can be interrupted. It can only be ranked up twice, giving his Q [Overload] six ranks. There are so many absurd things you can do with this ult. You can basically sneak your team wherever you want if you’ve paid attention and counter-warded. At least I don’t think it’s global! Want to sneak Darius into the middle of the enemy team? Go for it. Ready for that Orianna wombo? Do it up! You want to pack top-lane Yasuo and Alistar, and just Q/Ult for free? It’s easier than ever! I enjoy their game a lot, I do. But I think if they thought more long-term about what they wanted to do with Ryze, he wouldn’t get a seasonal update. There are champs that need that love, and you’re denying them love. Baby don’t hurt them, no more.
